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But Ford didn't think about that with the GT. They were so busy with the styling and the supercharger, and what ratio should be fitted to the steering rack, they forgot about what is now the most important part of a car - its ability to mate with an iPod.

I'm aware, of course, that you can buy a cradle which broadcasts your personal music library on the FM frequency for a range of about 30 yards. So you can listen to Tokyo Sex Destruction, with only mild interference from 7-Up Cabs.

I'm also aware that, thanks to Mr Blair, we now live in a police state - just this month, and I'm not joking, I was stopped for driving while smoking - so obviously we can't have personal radio transmitters.

They are therefore illegal - just like they were in Soviet Russia - so somehow I have to wire my iPod into the stereo which, it turns out, is a bit like trying to wire a toaster into a lemon meringue pie.

How can this be? How can we have reached a stage where even I know how to download songs from the interweb, and yet the world's car makers cannot supply some kind of cradle into which the future of music can be slotted?

I rang BMW, which claims its cars are iPod compatible. But a spokesman said he didn't have a clue how the two technologies are physically mated. Someone at Toyota thought the new Aygo might have some kind of docking port, since "iPods are for young people". I see. Well, on that basis, why don't Lexuses have wax cylinders? And to finish, a man at Mercedes said that from next year all Mercs will be able to talk to iPods.